jstp

Will people please stop the yelling and screaming about how SI "lied" to you about the patch?

Listen, I've had my own gripes with SI regarding FM/WWSM 08 that have been well documented here, but I'm really tired of hearing folks say that because SI lied when it used the term "a couple of weeks" in stating when we could expect to see a patch.

The term "a couple of" is open to some very loose representation. If I told you right now that I have "a couple of" beers in my fridge, and I in fact have five or six beers in there, does that make me a liar?

"A couple of" can mean two. Or three. Or maybe more if unforeseen factors come into play. "A couple of" is a noncommital term.

Now, I've read statements here to the effect of "I don't know how you measure these things in the States, but when we say 'a couple of weeks' here in the good ol' Empire, we mean "14 days and no more."

No. No no no. In the UK, if you mean "14 days and no more," you say "fortnight." Perfectly good word, and one we don't really use over here in the States. "Fortnight."

If SI had said, "It will be ready in a fortnight," I would have taken that as a definitive statement that we would have a patch within 14 days. But when they say, "It will be ready in a couple of weeks, once we're happy with it and have gone through a full test cycle internally," I take that to mean they're aiming to get it out in 2-3 weeks, more if things get sticky.

So please. Gripe all you want about SI being non-communicative, but consider that if someone was playing semantic games with the things that YOU SAID to paint YOU as a liar, you probably wouldn't be all that communicative, either, would you now?

retired_myu94070

A couple is two.

retired_lisa strom

U created your own brand of Dictionary? And who cares whether you are in the UK or not. This is a forum is open to anyone anywhere on earth that got internet access. So what if this forum is base in the UK? SI know that their audience are from anywhere in the world. So they SHOULD make it clear what they meant by a COUPLE OF WEEKS. To you people maybe a few, to me and to some others it means 2. Wake up your idea. Thank you

jstp

From Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary

1 a: two persons married, engaged, or otherwise romantically paired b: two persons paired together
2: pair, brace
3: something that joins or links two things together: as a: two equal and opposite forces that act along parallel lines b: a pair of substances that in contact with an electrolyte participate in a transfer of electrons which causes an electric current to flow
4: an indefinite small number : few (a couple of days ago)

I'm reading it as 4. You're reading it as 2. I would argue that the usage in SI's statement more closely aligns with 4.

retired_w0lfpack1

Heh. I literally have that in my cut-and-paste buffer at the moment - was going to say "You're both right."

I certainly interpreted it by definition #4 on first reading - if only because I know how game development goes and the remainder of the context of that paragraph contained more than two weeks' worth of work.

retired_lisa strom

From Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary

1 a: two persons married, engaged, or otherwise romantically paired b: two persons paired together
2: pair, brace
3: something that joins or links two things together: as a: two equal and opposite forces that act along parallel lines b: a pair of substances that in contact with an electrolyte participate in a transfer of electrons which causes an electric current to flow
4: an indefinite small number : few (a couple of days ago)

I'm reading it as 4. You're reading it as 2. I would argue that the usage in SI's statement more closely aligns with 4. </BLOCKQUOTE>Out of the 4 definitions, only 1 is suited for you while 3 of the definitions are suited for us. Majority do win most of the time. N what sort of unknown online dictionary is that? Can it even be trusted? You expecting us to read the minds of what SI actually meant by "A COUPLE OF WEEKS"? It comes to a situation where by the "YOU THINK I THOUGHT WHO CONFIRM" comes into play.

retired_lisa strom

We are not GOD. We can't read the minds of SI stuff. So they should make it REAL clear what they are driving at.

jstp

Here, even better. Here's the definition from the Compact OED, since we Yanks are obviously clueless when it comes to the Queen's English.

couple
noun
1 two individuals of the same sort considered together.
2 (treated as sing. or pl.) two people who are married or otherwise closely associated romantically or sexually.
3 (informal) an indefinite small number.
4 (Mechanics) a pair of equal and parallel forces acting in opposite directions and tending to cause rotation.

I think SI meant 3. You want to read it as 1, because you're frustrated and want to vent, to the extent that you want to call these people liars.

I think that's pretty *****, to use the Queen's English, if I may.

retired_w0lfpack1

Dictionary.com's entry is even more enlightening - and shows that #4 is the only possible reading:

cou·ple /ˈkʌpəl/ [kuhp-uhl]
noun, verb, -pled, -pling.

–noun
1. two of the same sort considered together; pair.
2. two persons considered as joined together, as a married or engaged pair, lovers, or dance partners: They make a handsome couple.
3. any two persons considered together.
4. Mechanics. a pair of equal, parallel forces acting in opposite directions and tending to produce rotation.
5. Also called couple-close. Carpentry. a pair of rafters connected by a tie beam or collar beam.
6. a leash for holding two hounds together.

—Idiom
14. a couple of, more than two, but not many, of; a small number of; a few: It will take a couple of days for the package to get there. Also, a couple.

(citation: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/couple)

jstp

Last time I checked, SI wasn't GOD, either. They gave what they thought was a reasonable (and, I would argue, informal) estimate of how long it would take.

And everyone seems to want to forget the caveat of "once we're happy with it and have gone through a full test cycle internally."